The objective of thermal processing is to deliver temperature into a package of product (referred to as "Canned Foods") in a quantity sufficient to cause the death or destruction of all microorganisms of public significance as well as those of economic spoilage concern. To accomplish this objective, the packaged, hermetically sealed product (in metal cans, glass jars, flexible pouches, semi-rigid plastic) is loaded into large sterilizer machines (also called retorts or autoclaves). These retorts utilize steam or water as the heating medium under pressure to achieve a high temperature environment in which the product is ultimately sterilized. Simply put, canned food products must be properly sterilized in order to ensure the safety of that product to the consumer.
Processing Authorities undertake the task of determining what a "safe process" is and ensure that the retort can actually deliver that process time/temperature in a safe and effective manner. These two tasks are further explained as follows:
- Thermal Processes for specific canned food products are developed by conducting heat penetration testing, evaluating the collected data, and using calculation methods to determine time, temperature, and lethality values.
- Our ability to accurately determine the time/temperature history of the entire retort is vitally important to ensuring the thermal process is delivered to each and every container. The temperature distribution test is used for documenting this time/temperature history under a set of controlled retort processing conditions.
Regulatory agencies require that Process Authorities "have facilities, instrumentation, and equipment adequate to determine the heat processing requirements of the food product," "use acceptable scientific methods of establishing heat sterilization processes," and "maintain records which cover all aspects of the process establishment."
The CALSoft™ software was designed by TechniCAL (the leading independent Process Authority) as a tool to be used specifically for assisting experienced, knowledgeable Process Authorities with the task of conducting this testing and evaluation of canned foods and retort sterilizers.